New Insanity Defense Trial In Subway Pusher Case

By |December 21, 2005

New York State’s highest court has tossed out schizophrenic Andrew Goldstein’s conviction for murdering aspiring actress Kendra Webdale in 1999 in a subway station, the New York Daily News reports. In a ruling likely to have broad ramifications for insanity defense cases, the Court of Appeals said Goldstein’s constitutional rights were violated because he didn’t get to confront witnesses whose statements were recounted in court by a prosecution psychiatrist. The psychiatrist, Angela Hegarty, concluded that Goldstein, now 35, was a predator whose “anti-social” personality and feelings of sexual frustration drove him to commit acts of violence against women.

Over defense objections, Hegarty was allowed to testify what she was told by six people who either witnessed Webdale being shoved to the subway tracks or were acquainted with Goldstein. In a 6-to-1 decision, the court said that, “The constitutional rules that guarantee defendants a fair trial must be enforced, and few such rules are more important than the one that guarantees defendants the right to confront the witnesses against them.” The case will be retried.

The legislation marks a major change for Republicans, who long hve embraced a law-and-order rallying cry. Now many GOP senators argue for rehabilitating more offenders rather than long-time incarceration.

An Arizona doctor argues that the government should have learned from previous federal anti-drug strategies that blanket prohibition doesn’t work. He calls for scrapping attempts to curtail opioids and replacing it with “harm reduction” policies.

Expensive medications for inmates can lead to substandard care and delays in treatment, and that may have lasting—even deadly—consequences for incarcerated individuals, writes a prison health care advocate.

Murder rates in the nation’s 30 largest cities are projected to fall by nearly 6 percent this year according to the latest data, undercutting claims that the nation is experiencing a “crime wave,” says the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

School safety commission proposes ending a federal guideline telling schools not to punish minorities at higher rates. The panel largely sidestepped issues relating to guns, although it favors arming some school personnel.